> Everyone knows the bard is #1 on the hit list for enemy creatures. In my
> most recent skirmishes with the Dervish Cutthroats, I continually found
> myself taking the brunt of the damage even though there were tanks in the
> group. Even when I tried to back up and quit attacking due to low health
> the cutthroats continued to attack me even though I was doing no damage to
> them. The end result is that I ended up dying a couple of times when other
> members of my group ended up taking either zero or little damage in the
> fight.
I used to die way too much in situations just like this. Whether I was fetching
or not, I just could not seem to get the mobs off of me. What I eventually
learned was how to manage the shit-list a little better so that the mobs would
hate the other members of my party as well. It can be done. If you are
fetching, that puts you at a big disadvantage to begin with, so when you get the
monsters back to your party, don't attack them. Make your tanks, cuz you ain't
a tank, fight them for a few rounds. Then jump back into the melee. You can
still be useful to the party for those seconds by playing anthem and healing, or
whatever is appropriate for your level. After a few rounds of tanks whacking on
them and spellcaster frying them, they will not be so entirely devoted to
killing you. The important thing is that you not rush into the melee. Trying
to back out of melee after you have been swinging away for several rounds just
does not work well for us. When you are not fetching, this is very easy to
manage. Just wait a few rounds before attacking. Don't feel bad, Clerics and
Mages do it all the time, as they should, cuz if they start blasting away from
the first round, the mob will eat their lunch too. Song selection is also
important. Just because you have Denon's Disruptive Discord or Kelin's Lucid
Lullaby does not necessarily mean you should be using them yet. I could not get
KLL to work reliably until about level 19. I tried it when I first got the song
and it would go off and put me at the top of their list, but since it was
failing on most pulses, they were free to whack on me. Denon's still is not
very reliable for me at 20 unless I am using the horn, which I really don't like
to do much, so I rarely use it. I will try again in a few levels. Well, that
sounded a bit too much like a rant. Tired, but had a great night killing
aviaks. Took a party of 6 characters level 19 to 20 and killed some Avocets,
which we didn't really think we coud handle.
Narcissus of Povar